Parts:

Head-Comic Pack Hawk

Chest-BTR Hollow Point

Arms-Grunt

Waist-JvsC Viper

Legs-Coils trooper

(boots cut off and repositioned)

Ah Mercer...what an awesome character. You know a character is cool when he only appeared for a brief time in a movie that most fans hate but has developed a rather dedicated following. I haven't really liked his appearance in any of the comics either, but there was something about his attitude in the movie that I just thought rocked.

I wasn't sure what direction to go with this figure. Part of me wanted to do something totally different and more Splinter Cell-ish, but then I felt that one of the things that made him look so cool was the mercenary aspect to the character with a strong tie to Cobra. I like to think of Slaughter's Renegades as the GiJoe version of the Dreadnoks. These are the guys who will undertake assassination attempts, cheat, steal and torture to get the truth. Tactics that no one want to do or admit to, but at the same time are happy when they yield results and save lives. For me Mercer is that guy.

I ended up choosing a lot of the same parts that other customizers had gone with and originally didn't add the gloves, higher collar or vest closure down his front. I kept feeling like something was lacking and went back and fixed those two things.

I also kept thinking Robert Patrick (T-1000 and Agent Dogget on X-Files) each time I thought about the character. I decided to get the Comic Pack Hawk head for Mercer and was pleasantly surprised when I painted it to see how much it looks like Robert Patrick.

I got the idea for his leg holster from Devil Due's GiJoe vs. Transformer comic during a shot when Mercer was escorting two Cobra Prisoners.